NEW YORK — Nearly 15,000 nurses are walking out of their hospital jobs early Monday morning and onto the picket line, in what their union says is the largest nursing strike in New York City history.
New York State Nurses Association members working for Montefiore Medical Center, New York-Presbyterian and the Mount Sinai Health System are demanding salary increases to account for inflation while fighting to maintain protections against understaffing that they won after a three-day strike three years ago. They are also calling for new contract provisions on artificial intelligence and workplace violence.
Union leaders said in their strike announcement that management from the three health systems "barely met with mediators," and some left negotiating tables "as early as 7:30, showing that they had zero interest in averting a strike."
"It is deeply offensive that they would rather use their billions to fight against their own nurses than settle a fair contract," union President Nancy Hagans said in a statement. "Nurses do not want to strike, but our bosses have forced us out on strike.”
The strike follows months of negotiations — most recently with a mediator — over new three-year contracts to replace the union’s prior collective bargaining agreements, which expired Dec. 31.
The nurses’ action is more than double the size of the 2023 strike at two of the same hospitals, which netted significant wins on nurse-to-patient staffing ratios. As a result of those deals, Montefiore and Mount Sinai have been ordered by arbitrators to pay millions of dollars in penalties to nurses who worked understaffed shifts.
Hospital officials and lobbyists have continued to insist that the union’s requests are unreasonable and would cost them billions of dollars at a time when they're already preparing for federal health care cuts in President Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill Act. They also argue that vacancy rates are down to the single digits with the addition of a couple thousand nurses in the last three years.
In a statement Sunday night, Gov. Kathy Hochul said the state Department of Health will have staff on site at all affected hospitals for the duration of the strike to ensure patient safety and continuity of care. She previously signed a two-week executive order suspending certain health care licensure laws to enable doctors, nurses and other health care workers in good standing to practice in New York.
“My top priority is protecting patients and ensuring they can access the care they need," Hochul said in the statement. "At the same time, we must reach an agreement that recognizes the essential work nurses do every day on the front lines of our healthcare system."
Mayor Zohran Mamdani said his senior leadership team, the city's emergency management team, FDNY, the city health department and the city's public hospital system are "in constant communication and closely monitoring the situation."
"No New Yorker should have to fear losing access to health care — and no nurse should be asked to accept less pay, fewer benefits or less dignity for doing lifesaving work," Mamdani wrote in a post Sunday night on X.
Mount Sinai secured more than 1,000 temporary nurses to care for patients during the strike, and New York-Presbyterian spent more than $60 million to prepare, according to spokespeople for the two health systems. In sum, hospitals have devoted over $100 million to strike planning, according to the Greater New York Hospital Association.
“There has been tremendous coordination across our entire network to manage discharges and ensure that we are prepared for the start of the strike and able to increase our capacity if a potential strike drags on,” Mount Sinai spokesperson Lucia Lee said in a statement.
from Politics, Policy, Political News Top Stories https://ift.tt/A7KY8wm
via IFTTT
No comments:
Post a Comment